Sarasota Yacht Club

By staff | March 17, 2014

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A cramped ’80s galley kitchen with worn white melamine cabinets and dated white appliances made way for this warm, contemporary open kitchen by architect Barron Schimberg. Schimberg opened up the wall to the dining area to provide more user-friendly flexible space. He added the marble-topped island for additional seating and a prep station, and complemented the marble with a marble-and-glass subway tile backsplash. Clever monorail light fixtures with LED lights were stretched across the high-volume ceiling to augment three stainless-steel hanging pendant lights. The new white cabinets reflect the lovely periwinkle shade of blue that replaced the original “ugly yellow” walls. Schimberg says he’s getting a lot of comments about the color on his Houzz page.

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This sleek, contemporary kitchen, part of the renovation of a 1990s-era apartment in Grand Bay on Longboat Key, was a collaboration between Tracy Scalzo of Eurotech Cabinetry and architect William Dobson. High-gloss lacquer pantry cabinets in taupe complement drawers made of olive-wood laminate with a strong horizontal grain. Minimalistic LED lights were installed in the kitchen ceiling and electrical outlets were tucked out-of-sight into the sink side of the island. And speaking of that sink, it was originally on the wall where the cooktop now sits. In order to move it to the spacious new Caesarstone-topped island, contractor Gregg Kaplan of LBK Contractors and Design brought the plumbing up through the ceiling and installed an elaborate pump system in the island. Now the homeowners can work at the sink and interact with their guests at the same time. “I couldn’t believe they did it, but they did,” says Eurotech’s David Asher.

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Ryan Perrone of Nautilus Home blended casual and sophisticated elements in this Dutch West Indies-inspired kitchen in Siesta Key’s Spice Bay. At 16 by 18 feet, the kitchen lives large thanks to its 11-plus-foot ceiling and open concept floor plan. (This photograph doesn’t show the informal breakfast area on the left that opens onto an outdoor covered terrace with fireplace, and the bar to the right of the staircase portal that opens up to the living room.) Perrone chose walnut wood floors, hand-scraped to achieve a casual feel. “We’re on Siesta Key; you don’t want a perfect wood floor,” he says. The builder maximized the smallish space with more high-end finishes—look closely and you’ll see that the staircase portal is made of raised-panel cabinetry, for example. “It makes it feel like you’re walking into something special,” says Perrone. And the natural stone backsplash has an unusual groutless weave to add more texture and dimension.

Sarasota Yacht Club, Sarasota
DSDG, Inc.
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This new building replaces buildings that existed in this location since 1910 as a landmark gathering spot for thousands of Sarasotans on the waterfront.

The project’s program consists of a building that hosts people for dinner, drinks, dancing, banquets, and other activities in a marine environment. The building includes a first floor, which is parking and storage built below base flood elevation. The second floor of the building includes dining, offices, a kitchen, bars, child care, ship store, restrooms, grand entry hall, honors gallery and meeting rooms. The mid-level includes outdoor dining, a fitness center, pool restrooms and a pool with deck.

A key to the design is the orientation of the site and building to the surrounding area: water and marina to the east and south, street to the north and existing buildings to the west. The building is aligned so that as pedestrians arrive at the entry porte -ochere and enter the lobby--both of which are sheltered by a translucent roof--they can see straight through to the main marina dock and water, bringing the water's edge into the building. It is elevated to conform to governmental codes that require structures built in flood-prone areas.

The structure has a standing seam aluminum roof on the main portion of the building, with large covered outdoor dining areas that stretch around the building to provide shade to both the diners and the building's glass facade. Outdoor dining along the waterfront allows unobstructed views and breezes. The style is key-phrased “coastal contemporary” to match the marine environment it reflects. The building conforms to 130-mile-per-hour hurricane building codes and is mainly constructed of concrete and steel. It is visible from a bridge approach from afar, and it blends into its environment with the use of sail shades that look like an extension of the sailboats and motorboats in the marina it harbors.

Warm teak woods, similar to the wood on a antique boat, accent the architecture to create a warm, visitor-friendly environment. The building continues to be a prominent landmark on the Sarasota waterfront.